RECENT ADVANCES IN SEAFLOOR MAPPING AND DATA VISUALIZATION

We have seen remarkable and concomitant advances in sonar technology, positioning capabilities, and computer processing power that have revolutionized the way we can image and explore the seafloor. At the core of these technologies has been the development of multibeam sonar systems that can provide near 100 percent coverage of relatively large areas of the seafloor with high resolution. Future developments must involve all aspects of the “seafloor mapping system” including, the sonars, the ancillary sensors (motion sensors, positioning systems, and sound speed sensors), the platforms upon which they are mounted, and the products that are produced. Current trends in sonar development involve the use of innovative new transducer materials, and the application of sophisticated processing techniques including focusing algorithms. Future developments will inevitably involve “hybrid”, phase-comparison/beamforming sonars, the development of broad-band “chirp” multibeam sonars and perhaps synthetic aperture multibeam sonars. ROV’s and particularly AUV’s will become more and more important as platforms for seafloor mapping system. We will also see great changes in the products produced from seafloor mapping and the processing necessary to create them. New processing algorithms are being developed that take advantage of the density of multibeam sonar data and use statistically robust techniques to “clean” massive data sets very rapidly. We are also exploring a range of approaches to use multibeam sonar bathymetry and imagery to extract quantitative information about seafloor properties, including those relevant to fisheries habitat. The density of these data also enable the use of interactive 3-D visualization and exploration tools specifically designed to facilitate the interpretation and analysis of very large (10’s to 100’s of megabytes), complex, multi-component spatial data sets. If properly georeferenced and treated, these complex data sets can be presented in a natural and intuitive manner that allows the simple integration and fusion of multiple components without compromise to the quantitative aspects of the data and opens up new worlds of interactive exploration to a multitude of users.